Leendert van der Torre
Papers
6
Total Citations
105
H-Index
5
About
Leendert van der Torre is a leading researcher at the intersection of social robotics, cognitive architectures, and human-robot interaction. His most impactful work focuses on developing autonomous systems that can engage meaningfully with vulnerable populations, particularly children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In his highly cited 2018 study (55 citations), van der Torre demonstrated that the QTrobot, a socially assistive robot, significantly increases attention and imitation while reducing repetitive and stereotyped behaviors in children with ASD compared to human-led interventions. This work, alongside a companion study (12 citations), establishes robots as effective therapeutic tools. Van der Torre also advances the foundational software infrastructure for these applications. He has pioneered agent programming languages for autonomous robots, addressing critical gaps in event-processing for high-level robot control (14 citations). His ProCRob architecture (6 citations) enables personalized social robotics, allowing tutors to adapt content and interaction to individual needs. By bridging theoretical computer science with real-world clinical applications, van der Torre’s research—spanning machine argumentation to robot-assisted therapy—is shaping how autonomous systems can serve as empathetic, adaptive partners in education and healthcare.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1
- 2Agent Programming Languages Requirements for Programming Autonomous Robots16 citations · 2013
- 3Event-processing in autonomous robot programming14 citations · 2013
- 4
- 5ProCRob Architecture for Personalized Social Robotics6 citations · 2017
- 6Machine Argumentation. Can We Replace Taxi Drivers by Robots?2 citations · 2019